In 2008, The Times named Pullman one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945". He is the author of several best-selling books, most notably the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and the fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is a British writer. Novelist, Author, Librarian, Writer, Playwright Pullman is a fine reader of his own writing, pacing well and giving convincing voice to both major and minor characters.(United Kingdom, England, Norfolk, East of England) But he stumbles, to my mind, by making Jesus sound too much like Phillip Pullman toward the novel's end. Even the "bad guys" in the novel (roughly, speaking, organized religion and the theology of the Gospel of John) are admitted to have been essential parts of Western culture. Pullman's well-known atheism doesn't prevent him from having a deep respect for much of the career and teachings of Jesus, and his modern-English rendering of the Sermon on the Mount is especially powerful. The title is intentionally misleading, however: the "good" Jesus is shown to have all-too-human failings (unconcern for his family, the anti-Gentile prejudice of his day), while "scoundrel" Christ develops a complexity of character that recalls Dostoevsky's tragic figures. On one level, twin brothers "Jesus" and "Christ" simply stand for the familiar opposition between the "historic Jesus" and the Christ that emerged as disciples coalesced into the early church and then a great Church that ruled an empire. But Christians aware of the historical complexity of Christianity, and non-Christians who are nevertheless moved and fascinated by the words and story of Jesus, should enjoy grappling with Pullman's "what if" experiments in this novel.
Equally, if you're a nonbeliever who has never read the New Testament and isn't familiar with the past century's worth of research into the historic Jesus, chances are this novel will bore you, and you'll have no clue why Pullman sometimes sticks close to the Gospels and sometimes departs radically from them. If you're a devout Christian who is just plain offended by any treatment of Jesus that departs from worshipful orthodoxy, the title alone has warned you not to spend your money.
Two groups of readers should avoid this book. Powerful if flawed reimagining of Jesus' story
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